France turns to parliamentary battle after Macron victory

France’s politicians charged straight into battle for next month’s parliamentary elections only hours after Emmanuel Macron won the presidency in a decisive victory over Marine Le Pen.

Preparations are under way for the two-round National Assembly poll on June 11 and 18, underlining the importance to the new president of obtaining a majority that would allow him to govern and push through his reform plans.

Mr Macron beat his far-right opponent with 66.1 per cent of the vote, according to final results published by the interior ministry on Monday morning. It was a comfortable margin of victory over Ms Le Pen that will give him momentum in the coming weeks, but the high level of abstention and spoiled ballots suggest many French still have doubts about him and his agenda.

France’s morning newspapers applauded Mr Macron’s audacious achievement but tempered their enthusiasm with questions about his choice of prime minister and doubts about his electoral prospects in June, which some call the third round of the presidential election.

The euro dropped and French stocks were weaker on Monday as attention turned to challenges ahead for Mr Macron. Relief at the likely defeat of far-right leader Ms Le Pen in Sunday’s final round of voting had already pushed France’s benchmark equity index up 6 per cent in the previous two weeks, and on Monday the CAC 40 retreated 0.9 per cent to 5,385 late morning. The euro fell 0.5 per cent, to $1.0946.

Mr Macron spent his first morning as president-elect paying hommage to France’s war dead alongside President François Hollande at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

He was then due to attend an executive meeting of his En Marche! movement where he will stand down as its leader as he prepares to become head of state.

Pro-Macron candidates will stand for election under the banner of “La République en Marche”, a semantic adjustment intended to appeal to the moderate centre-left and centre-right.

A poll last week suggested En Marche! could win between 250 and 290 MPs in a 577-strong chamber. But June’s legislative elections are even more unpredictable since any candidate reaching the 12.5 per cent threshold in the first round goes through to the second round run-off.

An Ipsos poll carried out for Le Monde on Sunday found that 61 per cent of voters did not want Mr Macron to command an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

Ms Le Pen said she wanted a “profound transformation” of the far-right as it tries to become the leading opposition force in French politics. It could even drop the National Front brand.

————————

FT View: Macron prevails but now the real battles will begin
Gideon Rachman: Why Macron matters to the whole world
Team Macron: a mix of youthful energy and wise heads
Macron’s victory in charts

————————

Nicolas Bay, the party’s secretary-general, said: “I think that maybe that is one of the ways that we can broaden our appeal and raise ourselves to the level that the French expect.”

The centre-right Republicans have high hopes of emerging as the strongest party in June’s elections despite failing to qualify for the presidential run-off. But the party is split on whether to co-operate with Mr Macron’s presidency.

Some moderates have offered to work in a new administration. “As a man of the right, I say that there is an open door, a chance of a useful five-year government,” said Bruno Le Maire, a one-time presidential hopeful. “I say, let’s seize it.”

But Mr Le Maire has been threatened with expulsion from his party by other senior colleagues, anxious to go into the elections as the opposition to Mr Macron.